TOTAL ABSTINENCE MEETING.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 133, 25 August 1870, Page 5

TOTAL ABSTINENCE MEETING.

A public meeting, called by advertisement, for the purpose of forming a Total Abstinence Society in Tuapeka, was held in the Athenaeum on Wednesday, the 17th inst. There was a large attendance. Mr. Stenhouse occupied the chair, and, after explaining the object of the meeting, stated that although he was not himself a total abstainer, he believed the cause a good one if rightly earned out. He would call upon the Rev. Dr. Copland to move the first resolution. The Rev. Dr. Copland expressed himself delighted with the spontaneous manner in which the total abstinence movement had originated in the district. The movement, lie was happy to observe, was becoming very general all over Otago. At West Taieri there was a society numbering over a hundred members, and he believed the society at the Teviot numbered about forty. The Rev. Dr. enlarged upon the great evil of the drinking customs of jthe country, and advocated a desperate remedy for sucli a desperate disease. He asked those present who had been any length of time in the Tuapeka district, to reflect upon the number of deaths which had been caused by drink in that district alone. He was aware that total abstinence was an extreme remedy, but it must be admitted that it was a practical one. They were all sufferers, more or less, from the drinking habits of society. Many of the bad debts which business men had to complain of were traceable to the evil effects of drink. The rev. gentleman gave a sketch of the history of the total abstinence movement. In the course of his remarks he referred to the temperance plan, which he said, had proved of little use. Then there was the anti-shouting system which also proved a failure, and he believed the total abstinence system was the only one fitted to meet the case. If the liquor traffic were altogether put a stop to, he thought it would be difficult to point to anjr evil of equal magnitude that would take its place. In the liquor trade, as in all other trades, there were certain vested interests existing which should not be overlooked ; but he considered that those who engaged in that trade must do as others had been obliged to do before, when there was a failure in the demand for their goods, viz., turn their attention and capital in some other direction. In referring to hotelkeepers, the rev. gentleman considered them very hardly dealt with. They paid a heavy license, and a process of downright swindling was allowed, and almost sanctioned by the authorities in the elicit traffic carried on at the very doors of hotels. They were injured in other respects, they had often to stand such treatment from their customers as he should not like to bear. But further, he believed it would be for the benefit of those engaged in the liquor traffic if it were done away with altogether. He would leave it to the meeting to say if the trade had been beneficial to those who had engaged in it in the Tuapeka district. He did not refer to those so occupied at the present time. What was their own experience with their families ? As a rule, they boarded them in schools in other parts, that they might be freed from the noxious atmosphere around them. The Rev. Doctor, after delivering a very able speech, moved the following resolution: — "That a society be formed to be called the Tuapeka Total Abstinence Society." Mr. Peter Robertson, in seconding the resolution, said he had not come to make a teetotal speech, as the cause was one which would speak for itself. No one who had adopted the principle of total abstinence would ever have reason to regret it. He used to be very fond of these meetings, and thought nothing of travelling 14 miles, after a hard day's work, to hear a good lecture on fceetotalism. Before he left the old country, he was nine years a teetotaller, and during that time did not even handle small beer, and he never left his porridge one morning excepting on Sundays, on which day he had a drop of tea instead. He was three years a teetotaller after coming to Otago. He regretted that he afterwards broke down, though his business bringing Mm more immediately in contact with the drinking habits of the place. He never was more sorry for anything than for that. He would ask any man, the father of a family, who might be in the habit of staying out late at night, if his wife loved him any better, or his sons and daughters respected him the more for it. But that was not all, the next morning his head was bad, his pocket considerably lighter ; and a piece of two-and-sixpenny bacon was not dainty enough for his impaired appetite. He had great pleasure in seconding the resolution The resolution was put and carried unanimously. The Rev. Mr. Keall then addressed the meeting at some length, and proposed the following resolution :—": — " That the principle of the society be abstinence from all intoxicating drinks unless for medicinal or religious purposes." Mr. W. M-Lelland, in seconding the resolution, delivered an excellent speech. This resolution was also unanimously adopted. At this stage of the proceedings, our reporter had to leave the meeting, but we are informed that a considerable number of gentlemen signed the pledge after the meeting closed, and that now the roll numbers'* nearly thirty. To. morrow evening there will be another meeting held in the Athenaeum, when pffice bearers will be elected,